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Abstract

Virtual organization partner selection has recently attracted the attention of researchers from various fields. The need for partner selection arises when a broker (e.g., Katzy & Dissel, 2001) identifies a collaboration opportunity and is willing to form a virtual organization (VO). Several researchers have suggested that a pool of proactively cooperating organizations would be an efficient platform for creating VOs (Lau & Wong, 2001; Camarinha-Matos & Afsarmanesh 2003; Tølle & Bernus, 2003). Here, we follow the terminology of Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh (2003), who call this pool a virtual organization breeding environment (VBE). The idea is that a VBE provides a common structure for repeated VO creation, hence decreasing the costs related to ad hoc VO creation. Such a VBE structure includes, for instance, a common ICT infrastructure, contract templates and decision-support tools for agile VO creation.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Criteria Hierarchy: The structuring of high-level selection criteria into subcriteria and sub-subcriteria.

Work Breakdown Structure: Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented decomposition of work that needs to be carried out in order to meet the objectives of a project. The work that is included in the WBS defines the scope for the project. The WBS is hierarchical and the subsequent levels represent increasingly detailed definition of work (PMBOK, 2004).

VE/VO Configuration: A match between VO partners and the tasks of the work breakdown structure.

Node Criterion: A selection criterion that is measured for a single VO partner candidate.

Competence: The capability to perform a work defined in the work breakdown structure.

Score: A selection alternative’s performance on a given selection criterion.